Why should the devil have all the good theologians?

March 9, 2013 By 19 Comments
video

Welcome to another episode of Role Reversal Television, in which outspoken atheist Penn Jillette explains to Catholic pundit Piers Morgan why Catholic tradition doesn't change with the times. Orthodox Christians don't understand hierarchical power in this way, and evangelicals would object to even more here. But the spirit of the thing is one Catholics, Orthodox, and evangelicals can appreciate: The faith once delivered is not the faith that is edited and updated with the times. It … [Read more...]

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What’s with all the Christian tattoos? Am I missing out?

March 8, 2013 By 34 Comments
Cross tattoos

I used to want a tattoo. That was more than twenty years ago, back in high school when only the brave and cool and rebellious people got tattoos. Back then a neck tat meant you were hardcore. Today it means you're a 19-year-old sorority girl. I never did get the tattoo. I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to permanently etch on my epidermal canvas. Or what part of the canvas I would use. Something public? Or something I could cover up so my boss didn't think I was secretly the chief … [Read more...]

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Want to see how un-Christlike you are? Try raising kids

March 7, 2013 By 11 Comments
fathers don't provoke your children

If you're looking for a gauge to measure how un-Christlike you are, try raising kids. At least that works pretty well for me. In The Four Loves C.S. Lewis speaks of "the bad manners of parents to children." Ahem. Guilty. The other day I spoke harshly to my son. An hour later he was rude, and Megan corrected him. "In our home we honor each other with our words," she told him. And I had to interrupt and apologize right there, lest I make her a hypocrite. I had not honored my son in my … [Read more...]

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Run your race with intensity

March 6, 2013 By 2 Comments
Run the race with patience

The apostle Paul compares our life in Christ to a footrace. Like any race this is one that only the diligent will win. Go back to your childhood story time. Though he had every advantage, Aesop's hare lost to the tortoise because he dawdled and frittered. We face the same temptations, but Paul exhorts us to run with intensity: Run like you want to win. Says the apostle, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?" This isn't to say that only one … [Read more...]

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Believing the best about God

March 4, 2013 By 10 Comments
Burying the talent

Our assumptions about God affect our experience of him. My mind returned to this thought several times while recently reflecting on the parable of the talents. The story, which Jesus tells in Matthew 25, is familiar to most of us. Before a man of means departs on a lengthy journey, he deposits some of his wealth into the hands of his three servants: five talents to the first, two to the second, and one to the third. As soon as he's gone, the men get busy. Different servants, different … [Read more...]

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The Prodigal Son and our journey back to the father’s house

March 3, 2013 By 3 Comments
video

Eastern and Western Christians celebrate Easter on different dates, and that means that our lenten schedules don't mesh either. Orthodox Christians are just now wading into the season, and today is the second of several pre-lenten commemorations, the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. The church points us to Jesus' parable to remind us that we are all on a journey back to the father. Here's the story retold in the 1977 feature, Jesus of Nazareth: That same year, 1977, Christian musician Keith … [Read more...]

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3 unique resources for studying the life of King David

March 1, 2013 By 7 Comments
David and Goliath

King David is one of the most interesting figures in all of Scripture. My friend David Teems recently summed up the fascination by focusing on the paradoxes of his namesake. "Anointed as a boy, it would be years before David actually ruled anything, including himself," he writes. "If he is messy, and he is, he is also glorious. If he is a man of blood, he is also a poet of the first order. If he is untamed, if he is a bit uncivilized, he is also a man after God’s own heart." David is a … [Read more...]

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What a garden can teach us: A lenten reflection

February 26, 2013 By 12 Comments
The spiritual side of gardening

I spent some time this weekend gardening. Megan and I recently purchased a new house -- actually, a very old one -- and it was evident that the yard work had slipped. So after mustering up the resolve, we sallied forth with clippers and rakes in hand. And what did we have to show for our efforts besides seven bags of leaves and clippings and one rather large pile of branches and scrub? As I trimmed and pruned and cut and dug, I reflected on how gardening helps us better understand certain … [Read more...]

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What all Christians can learn from one brave priest

February 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Priest intervenes with between police and rioter

Amid ongoing economic and political unrest, Greek riot police have hit the streets to deal with violent anti-austerity protests. From those struggles comes a moving picture shared by Abbot Tryphon of All Merciful Savior Monastery on Vashon Island, Washington. An Orthodox priest scurries between the police and a protestor armed with a bottle. It could just be glass, but it looks like an unlit Molotov cocktail. I've seen similar shots of police moving across ground streaked with fire. … [Read more...]

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Remembering Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman

February 24, 2013 By 6 Comments
video

It's been five years since Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman died of heart failure, complications from a heart attack he suffered a decade prior. Here's his song, "The Great American Novel": His career was as long as it was controversial. After a brief stint as the lead singer for the San Jose, Calif., pop band People!, Norman went solo in 1969 with his Capitol Records release, Upon this Rock. It was Christian rock before there was Christian rock. Sometimes compared to Bob Dylan for … [Read more...]

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